1. Technological Field
This disclosure is related to social media marketing based on location detection, and more specifically integrates all means of location extraction from accessible social media online content, associations between separated online social media services to better determine location, and provides that location's administrator information in selectable fashion to use in location-specific patron identification and direct communication.
2. Background
The present invention is closely tied to social media and mobile devices. Social media, mobile devices and their interrelation are thus described in the following order.
Social Media and Mobile Devices
The term social media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies for social communications. In concrete terms, social media is user-generated digital content about people, businesses or any topic produced as an artifact of social interaction using ubiquitously accessible and scalable communication techniques, most notably Internet connected personal computers (desktops or portables) and mobile devise, in particular smartphones. By its very nature, social media digital content is public to varying degrees. At minimum, it is public to an audience selected by the content author, at widest it is open to the general public. Social media has been widely adopted by the general public since web-based applications and services started to appear in the early 2000s. Mobile devices, smartphones in particular, have also gained wide pubic adoption. Social media and smartphones have co-evolved and are closely related. Social media relies on the communications aspect of smart phones and one of the most common applications of smartphones is social media.
Forms of Social Media
Social media can take on many different forms. Although there is considerable overlap, these forms can be generally categorized into the following groups; social networking; geolocation; media sharing such as photos, videos and presentations; social bookmarking; blogs; wikis; file sharing; and event planning.
Networking Form of Social Media
Social networking services allow users to add friends, send messages and share content. Popular services for social networking include Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The last may also be considered to be a “micro” blog and is popular with mobile device users. These services may be for general use or optimized for a narrower scope such as business and career related networking. People on social networking services group in communities of like-minded interest. Social networking may be considered the basis of all other types of social media; the other types also allow for networking though they are typically specialized in sharing certain content types such as one's geographical location. Smartphones, carried by a person at any given time, facilitate timely remote social networking.
Geolocation Form of Social Media
Geolocation services such as Gowalla, Foursquare and Yelp feature “check-in” capabilities. A check-in is a process where users can, if they choose, share their location—usually at the immediate present—and comments about it with their social connections. Examples of location types to which check-ins commonly occur are public destinations such as restaurants, bars, retail shops, clubs, parks, stadiums, museums, tourist attractions and various types of entertainment venues. Where supported, capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging are used to enrich social dynamics and networking. User-submitted location data or geolocation techniques allow social networks to connect and coordinate users with others for events matching their interests. Geolocation on web-based social network services is often IP-based. Gelocation services are closely allied with mobile devices and Global Positioning System (GPS) commonly imbedded in mobile devices, smartphones in particular, make location-based services easier to use by applying user coordinates at the time of check-in while at a location of interest. Smartphones are appealing in that they allow more timely and convenient check-ins.
Media Sharing Form of Social Media
Media sharing includes subcategories of photo, video and audio sharing. Photo sharing sites, in particular, are where people can upload photos to share either privately with select users. Examples of popular services include Flickr, Photobucket and Instagram. These services allow users to describe their photographs with keyword tags or describe them in detail. Longitude and latitude coordinates imbedded into meta-data of photographs taken using devices equipped with GPS, such as most modern smartphones may allow easier identification of locations where photo was taken. The coordinates can be linked to such services such as Google Maps.